


Control

by MeltedIceAngel



Category: TXT (Korea Band)
Genre: Aged-Up Character(s), Best Friends, Choi Soobin POV, Dark Arts, Dark Magic, M/M, Magic, Magic School, Protective Kang Taehyun, Protectiveness, Resentful Choi Soobin, Spirits
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-12-14
Updated: 2019-12-14
Packaged: 2021-02-25 23:27:22
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 5,309
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/21793735
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/MeltedIceAngel/pseuds/MeltedIceAngel
Summary: Beomgyu had been the one to question why using the spirit's resentment to control them and force them away wasn’t more ideal. It was quicker, after all. Healing wounds took time, the bitterness was already there. The teacher had blanched, red-cheeked, and fearful, and the class moved on without any answer.
Relationships: Choi Beomgyu/Kang Taehyun, Choi Soobin/Choi Yeonjun
Comments: 9
Kudos: 71





	Control

**Author's Note:**

> More on my practice with one-shots. I tried my absolute best to not turn this into a full length story, and I actually managed to do it. I figured if there's anything that needs elaborated on, it can be handled in another one-shot.

Choi Soobin thought back to his first year at Mófǎ School of Sorcery, back when he’d been chubby-cheeked and innocent, books tucked under his arm and white robes all ready to go for their first lesson. He’d been led to his classes by Kim Seokjin, the top-ranked student aside from Kim Namjoon, the man’s best friend. Choi Soobin had been wide-eyed and wistful, studious and hardworking, striving to be in the same position as his seniors one day.

He’d met Choi Yeonjun in his first ever Divination class. The boy had been brooding, legs crossed, and slouched in his chair. Soobin was mortified, looking between the boy and their instructor as if she would soon spell the boy into a proper sitting position. In the end, she had simply given Choi Yeonjun a nasty look and continued on with roll, praising the students who sat poised and professional.

They hated each other for a long time. Perhaps all of first year was spent with Choi Yeonjun breathing insults down Soobin’s back. Teacher’s pet, try-hard, suck up, all of the same types of blows with a few nuances changed here and there. Soobin could never quite understand why Choi Yeonjun hated him with such a fervent passion. That is, until the last month of the school year when it was revealed the boy was being bullied himself.

Soobin overheard the taunts late at night, far after he should have been in bed. He was never a rule-breaker, and there were a lot of rules, but there was something about Choi Yeonjun vanishing each night that ate at him. In the end, he found the boy cornered by several fifth years, all spitting and yelling, telling him that a faggot would never make it. 

Choi Soobin hadn’t meant to silence the older boys, hadn’t even known he could do it really, but one second they were shouting insults and the next they were groaning around glued lips. Everything shifted between them that day. Soobin had taken the boy back to their dorm and given him an awkward hug, promising him that there was nothing wrong with him and that he would be successful if he worked hard. 

Choi Yeonjun had spilled everything to him; his parents, the elder students, even a teacher or two that had joined in on the bullying. He’d confessed that it had been a rogue comment about how Yeonjun was fond of Soobin that had started it all. From that day on, he’d tried to put a stop to it by throwing insults and creating a rift, intending to show that the fondness had not been there. It had not worked.

By the beginning of Soobin’s second year, he and Yeonjun had become an inseparable pair. The whole school knew of them, and if anyone didn’t, they were quickly told a quick retelling of the silencing spell.

It was fortunate that no one knew of Soobin’s extensive training of said spell over the summer. That led to even more hilarious incidents of students lip locked every time a poor word was spoken of Soobin’s best friend.

In their third year, Soobin’s brother Huening Kai, his brother’s friend Kang Taehyun, and Yeonjun’s brother Choi Beomgyu began their first years. Taehyun was very similar to Soobin in that he spent a lot of time studying, reading, and doing copious amounts of extra homework, while Beomgyu reminded Soobin eerily of Yeonjun. Huening Kai, while being the one actually related to Soobin, was a free spirit and could be compared to no one.

Beomgyu and Taehyun had a rocky start, much like Soobin and Yeonjun had. Beomgyu was laid back and liked to bend the rules, while Taehyun was rod tense and refused to do anything out of line. In the end, it took them only a little less time to become fond of each other, and unfortunately, their road was tainted and almost forced.

Choi Beomgyu and Kang Taehyun spent a lot of time meditating, which had been shocking to the seniors at first. Beomgyu didn’t seem the type to sit still, and Taehyun was usually busy with extra activities for teachers. Despite those perceived excuses, if neither of them could be found in the library or their shared dorm, they were likely at the cold pool, submerged and deep in meditation.

When the two of them went missing, it was Huening Kai that went to fish them out of the water to get a good scolding. They’d been gone for six hours, and dinner had already long passed. Kang Taehyun was thin enough without skipped meals. 

An hour later, Huening Kai was bursting through the doors of the huinsaeg chambers to scream that Beomgyu and Taehyun had vanished. 

Soobin and Yeonjun tore out of the school and toward the cold pool. There, they found Taehyun and Beomgyu’s outer robes and shoes, but no Taehyun or Beomgyu. They searched everywhere, Yeonjun even going as far as to forsake stripping to save time as he jumped into the pool to search the floor. He came back up, panting and shivering, blue lips wobbling as he fought tears.

They were nowhere to be found. 

The next morning, just before the first lessons, Beomgyu and Taehyun turned up soaking wet and blue in the extremities. Soobin had rushed his brother’s friend off to get warmed up, while Yeonjun beat into Beomgyu that whatever had happened was absolutely not okay and for sure not a laughing matter. 

After that day, Taehyun seemed warmer to Beomgyu. Despite the elder boy having an almost unhealthy obsession with getting Taehyun to like him, it had never reaped many results until their disappearance. The younger stopped using Soobin’s lip-locking spell on Beomgyu first, and that had been a step greater than any of them had expected. It had made Soobin wonder what exactly happened to them to make the usually uptight boy soften.

Huening Kai ended up trailing after Beomgyu more on top of Taehyun’s sudden change, which left Soobin back in the company of Yeonjun. The three of them made a good team despite their friend’s naturally dull disposition next to their eccentrics. 

It wasn’t until Beomgyu, Huening Kai, and Taehyun’s fifth year that anything dramatically changed. 

Beomgyu had always been peculiar in his studies. He liked simple, straightforward solutions to things that he believed were made intentionally complicated by elders. Beomgyu refused anything that required long-winded effort when there was a clear, one-step fix to the issue. 

When the white-colored sorcerers learned of healing past traumas of spirits to help them move on, Beomgyu had been the one to question why using their resentment to control them and force them away wasn’t more ideal. It was quicker, after all. Healing wounds took time, the bitterness was already there. The teacher had blanched, red-cheeked, and fearful, and the class moved on without any answer.

Beomgyu spent a lot of time by himself after that. Even Taehyun, who had been stuck to his hip since their first year, rarely saw him. Something happened to the boy after that class, and it showed in the way he’d return to the chambers with red eyes, shaking hands, and bleeding lips. His flute, the one he’d chosen for their optional music course, always had a black dusting whirling around it until early in the morning.

In Soobin and Yeonjun’s ninth year, they chose to specialize in spiritual healing. It was their last ever term in the school, and most of it was spent out on the field. It was on a dark, rainy night that Soobin saw him for the first time.

Beomgyu had followed them, but he had hidden well. He was up in one of the tallest trees in the vast forest, dressed in the black robes of the geom-eun saeg sect of their school. His hair, reaching past his shoulders as most of the students’ did, was tied with a blood-red ribbon matching the belts holding the robes together. 

They had been sent to work with a wood spirit, someone that had passed away while lost. The spirit was vengeful, creating uneven paths, stealing supplies, and trapping food sources to keep travelers from making it out. They had already searched for an hour when Soobin caught sight of Beomgyu in the tree, and a close look at the boy showed that his flute was tainted with grey smoke. 

In the end, the spirit had never been found, and travelers reported no more issues in the forest. All seemed well, and despite having wasted a few hours of instruction, their teacher had not been upset. He had assumed one of the senior healers had already found and guided the spirit, but Soobin knew he was wrong.

Beomgyu had found that spirit first. He’d banished it using the spirit’s resentment as a form of mind control. The hatred was directed at itself, and that made it easy to banish. When Soobin confronted the dead-eyed boy the next day, Beomgyu had scoffed in his face. 

“As if I’d want to follow healers. Waste of my time,” He’d said, and Soobin clenched his teeth together and took it. He was the elder brother in the relationship, he needed to be calm and deal with the information he had tactfully.

Soobin had barged into the sixth year dorms when he was sure all of them would be in class, intent on finding the black robes he’d seen Beomgyu wear. He had only managed to search through one trunk of Beomgyu’s before he felt a presence behind him. Soobin turned.

Taehyun was standing in the doorway, stock still. Soobin tried to think of an excuse, but it was clear that some form of understanding had already laid out between them. Taehyun knew something, and he knew that Soobin knew something. 

“It’s not polite to go through someone else’s things,” Taehyun said, not daring to break eye contact. Soobin pushed his lips out, anger flaring up despite his desperation to remain collected. 

“You know something,” Soobin said instead, wanting to cut to the chase and avoid whatever else Taehyun wanted to say.

“I know you’re invading my friend’s privacy,” Taehyun said, moving to the side to create a path for Soobin to exit the room. He did, but not without glaring at the younger boy on his way out. Taehyun didn’t let any emotion show. It was very much like the boy, yet also eerily sinister at the same time. 

In the end, he finds out nothing. He graduates with Yeonjun, head of his class, and finds a job quickly as a spiritual healer in Beijing. He had intended to return to Korea after his schooling had ended. Still, with all that was happening with Beomgyu and Taehyun, he and Yeonjun decided to stay close in case anything were to happen.

Rumors began to float around about a rogue healer sneaking his way around, guiding spirits, and saving villages from even the most sinister. Yeonjun and Soobin were terrified to read that even a lake-dwelling spirit, known for years to sink ships and drown the passengers, had been swept out in just one night.

Soobin knew very little about the kind of magic Beomgyu was partaking in, but he knew what it did to a person. Physically, it increased their strength and endurance. It built them up to be almost infinitely powerful. Psychologically, it killed them. Anger was no longer controllable, their actions could be robotic and vicious, and then unable to be remembered. It drove people into insanity, and if Beomgyu kept going down that path, he would be unrecognizable. 

Two years later was the first-day Soobin stood face to face with Beomgyu as the rogue healer. He had been given a new name by the citizens of China and Korea, Agma Cheoligi, or Demon Handler. He was still clad in robes of black and red, hair a thick black instead of its light brown from when he’d been in school. 

Beomgyu had smiled at him and waved good-naturedly as if they were working together willingly rather than by force. Beomgyu had shown up uninvited, and he dared to act like that. Like the little boy, he’d met in his third year. The one who loved his little brother as his own, the one who obsessed over Taehyun and begged to be his friend.

The man in front of him bore no resemblance to the Beomgyu he’d once known. The red eyes seemed to be a permanent fixture, his face now further tainted by the blood-stained on his lips. 

In the end, it took Beomgyu thirty seconds to complete what Soobin’s sect had been working on for weeks. The man smirked, twirling his hair around a finger infuriatingly. Soobin’s eyes narrowed, and the hatred built steadily until it was all-encompassing. He couldn’t look Beomgyu in the eyes as he turned to leave, blowing Soobin a parting kiss.

Two years after that, the world began to see what he did when faced with Choi Beomgyu. Someone evil, someone who only cared about being quick rather than being morally right. It was the day that Beomgyu lost his mind entirely to his practice, his body moving freely and without direction from the boy that used to inhabit it.

A useless meat suit was all Beomgyu was. So when a member of his sect went to slice the stomach of said suit, he felt no remorse. It wasn’t until a body stood between his sect member and Beomgyu, familiar angular face and long, brown hair blocking the enchanted knife with his own. 

It was Taehyun, dressed in a red set of robes with yellow flowers stitched on the shoulder. He’d been a healer in Shanghai, then. Soobin allowed the fighting around him to fade as he took in the blank face of his brother’s best friend.

His hair had grown impossibly longer than Beomgyu’s, but the color and style had stayed the same. Tied up in the Shanghai sect yellow ribbon, falling smoothly down his back. His face betrayed no emotion. Still, his eyes held all the worry and anger that Soobin would expect from someone that had practically flown to save an ally. 

Although Taehyun wasn’t an ally of Beomgyu, or at least, he wasn’t supposed to be. If he had been part of Beomgyu’s sect in Seoul, then he would be wearing similar black robes to the other man. It wasn’t until the Shanghai clan leader shouted in Chinese that Taehyun had betrayed them again that Soobin understood.

That day back in the dorm should’ve been his first clue. Taehyun had always known, and if Soobin was right, Taehyun was probably the one who had fed Beomgyu all the information about outings to recover spirits. If his brother’s friend had been a healer, then he would have access to all the information on spirits and their locations. 

It all made sense now. 

His heart ached for Huening Kai. The two had remained close after leaving school despite Soobin not being entirely sure where Taehyun had taken off to. Huening Kai had always seemed secretive, but not to the degree of being apart of whatever Beomgyu and Taehyun had going on.

In the end, one of Soobin’s sect members sliced through Taehyun’s arm, the man crumbling but still using all his strength to protect whatever was left of his best friend. The fight only came to an end when Taehyun used the last of his power to grab his friend and run, followed closely by the few remaining followers of Beomgyu’s Seoul sect.

Fifteen years later, Soobin had mostly forgotten about Taehyun and Beomgyu. There had been very few sightings of either of them, most of which still centered deep in China. Huening Kai had moved on as well, as far as Soobin knew. Once Soobin came home bloodied and beaten from Beomgyu’s controlled spirits, it seemed his brother finally shared his hatred.

Soobin and Yeonjun returned to Korea only a few months after the fight with Beomgyu’s sect, settling down in Busan and continuing with their jobs as healers. They had never married, but they had been in a steady relationship for twelve years and were still going strong. They’d been discussing adoption, and maybe even becoming instructors to young healing trainees. 

Fifteen years without seeing hide nor tail of those two, and it just had to be his dear younger brother that brought them out of hiding. 

Beomgyu and Taehyun showed up at Huening Kai’s door, shivering and complaining about the cold. They shoved right past Soobin, tossing their shoes on the floor and removing their coats. Beomgyu even went as far as to throw his own jacket at Soobin as if he were a coat rack himself.

“Huening Kai, hyung is here!” Beomgyu shouted good-naturedly. Soobin tossed the man’s coat to the ground and glared, teeth grinding together. 

“Hyung!” Huening Kai, his dear younger brother, came bounding down the stairs to wrap his arms around Beomgyu as if they were really, truly still friends. “You both look so weird in real clothes!” Beomgyu and Taehyun chuckled, showing off their jeans and hoodies with a flourish. 

“We went shopping just for you,” Beomgyu cooed, squishing Huening Kai’s cheeks obnoxiously. The boy laughed anyway, waving the elder off. 

“Still the long hair? You know that’s a bit of a dead giveaway,” Huening Kai sighed, flicking Taehyun’s long hair. 

“No one said anything on our way here,” Taehyun shrugged, pulling his hair away from the youngest of their group. Beomgyu nodded, fixing the wide braid at the top of his head to better lay flat. 

“It looks pretty, Beomgyu hyung. Did you try something new?” Huening Kai asked, taking in the lack of red ribbon. 

“I did, thank you for noticing,” Beomgyu said. That seemed to snap Soobin out of his stunned silence.

“What do you mean, did he try something new? When was the last time you even saw him?” Soobin said, trying not to shout. Huening Kai seemed to genuinely think for a few moments.

“Two months ago?” Huening Kai said, leaving Soobin a spluttering mess.

“You’re telling me that you’ve been hanging out with, with them!?” Soobin shouted in disbelief, throwing his hands up in the air. Huening Kai stared at him as if he had no idea why Soobin would be so offended by this fact.

“Yes, they’re my friends. I’ve known them since I was ten,” Huening Kai said as if that explained away everything.

“They are not the same kids you met when you were ten, Huening Kai!” Soobin shouted, earning a look from his brother.

“Lower your voice, unlike you, I have neighbors. And yes, they are. This is still Kang Taehyun and Choi Beomgyu,” Huening Kai said, pointing to each of them in turn. Beomgyu bowed dramatically as if they were meeting for the first time. 

“Choi Beomgyu,” Soobin scoffed. “Demon handler. The reason all those people died,” Soobin challenged, staring Beomgyu down. The younger didn’t even flinch.

“I did not kill those people,” Beomgyu said, face betraying no emotion. Soobin bristled, his fingers clenched at his side.

“Then who did? I’m pretty sure it was you playing your stupid flute,” Soobin said, eyeing said flute on Beomgyu’s back.

“What does that have to do with anything?” Beomgyu asked, showing genuine shock. “It’s not like I can actually puppet them,” He said. Soobin rolled his eyes.

“Yeah, and I don’t like bread,” Soobin somehow earned a laugh from all three boys. “It wasn’t meant to be funny.”

“That’s when you’re the funniest, Soobinnie,” Beomgyu cooed, puckering his lips out into a pout. Soobin glared. “I guess I can’t argue with you. I’m missing quite a big chunk of my memory. All I know is that resentment control is banned, and I’m on quite a few hit lists.”

“Missing a bit of memory? So you just forgot all those people you barrelled over with your resentful spirits?” Soobin asked, wide-eyed.

“I can’t even do that,” Beomgyu growled, Taehyun’s hand coming up to comfort the other. “I don’t know what you’re talking about, but I’m sure I would recall learning how to control spirits in that way. The most I can do is get them to self destruct.”

“So you lost control of them. You pulled all their resentment to the forefront and then lost control, is that it?” Soobin asked. Beomgyu grinned, shaking his head.

Soobin hadn’t realized how much he was angering Taehyun until he went to speak, and his lips were bound. The younger still had not shown any emotion other than a flitter of worry when Beomgyu had lost his temper. 

“Perfect, now we can go watch that new anime I wanted to show you,” Huening Kai said, dragging Beomgyu and Taehyun up the stairs with him. Soobin clenched his teeth and considered whether he would inform his sect immediately or wait and observe first. 

It turned out that the reason Soobin had not heard much about Beomgyu or Taehyun was the fact that most of the articles were written in Chinese. 

Despite having lived there his teenage years, the classes had been taught in English, and all of his friends had been from Korea. He had no real excuse to learn Chinese, even when working with the Beijing sect, as all of them were proficient in English from school as well.

He used a phone translator to get the gist of most of the articles, all of them painting a full picture where he’d only had a partial before. It was true that Beomgyu was on many hit lists and was universally hated among most. Still, there seemed to be a recurring trend amongst the articles. 

No matter how many times someone took a shot at Beomgyu, there was always a figure in red robes and a black mask that swooped in and saved the man. Despite a few people having traced the figure back to Kang Taehyun of the Shanghai sect, no one was stating it as fact. The only thing anyone knew was that with the figure around, the Demon Handler was untouchable.

Soobin looked up toward his brother’s room, eyes narrowed in thought. Kang Taehyun was for sure quick-witted and able-bodied. He’d studied thoroughly, and he was a star student in all aspects. It was no wonder he was untouchable, and even less surprising that the boy used all of that talent to protect Choi Beomgyu.

Beomgyu’s obsession with Kang Taehyun had melted away at some point, infecting Taehyun with an almost virus-like ferocity. The boy followed Beomgyu around like a shadow. Still, it wasn’t in the same way Huening Kai followed Jeon Jungkook or Kim Taehyung from the senior classes.

Taehyun loved Beomgyu. Perhaps more than anyone had ever loved another person in the history of time. The boy laid down everything for his senior, including his own reputation and freedom. Despite the articles clearly saying that Beomgyu and Taehyun had never explicitly gone into hiding, it was still apparent that they were being hunted.

And yet, there was Taehyun, throwing himself in between bullets, swords, and knives to save his best friend. It was ridiculous, and yet part of Soobin understood. Would he have done the same for Yeonjun? He had been so quick to turn against Beomgyu, but it wasn’t the same. Beomgyu wasn’t Yeonjun. 

Maybe Soobin understood far too well.

Soobin doesn’t call his sect, and Beomgyu and Taehyun are gone for another month before he sees them again. This time it’s in front of a group of rogue healers, several Korean sects, and a scattering of Chinese and Japanese sects all grouped together to face the Demon Handler. Choi Beomgyu stood before them, head held high as he met the group.

It had been a lot of talking. Lots of accusations, plenty of anger and grief, making the whole thing a mess. Soobin had been surprised to see Kang Taehyun standing with his sect, sword not drawn but no moves taken to force the others to resheath theirs. Even the guns were cocked and loaded, ready to be fired. Taehyun didn’t move.

“You’ve deceived everyone. Even your best friend was deceived by you,” A voice called, and Beomgyu smiled ruefully.

“You’re right,” Beomgyu said, but Taehyun walked forward to stand by his side.

“No, I’m by your side. Always. By choice,” Taehyun said, taking his, perhaps rightful, place standing back to back with Beomgyu. Soobin didn’t move even as the two of them made to leave, no one making a move to stop them. It was the final step that a face came out from the crowd, an oddly familiar one if Soobin remembered right.

Park Jimin, one of the students closest to Soobin’s former idols. He didn’t seem angry or dangerous, but Taehyun still moved closer to Beomgyu regardless.

“Do you remember Kim Taehyung?” Park Jimin asked. Beomgyu didn’t say anything. “He’s still recovering. Sixteen years and he’s still not himself. It’s your fault.” Beomgyu sighed.

“I did not force anyone to join my sect,” Beomgyu said, recalling Kim Taehyung’s willingness to try out a new form of spiritual manipulation. “He stepped forward willingly.” The sound of Jimin’s knife unsheathing was loud in the otherwise silent courtyard. Beomgyu didn’t flinch, even when blood began to flow freely from his mouth.

“Beomgyu,” Taehyun said, face finally betraying his emotions. Beomgyu crumbled, Taehyun jumping forward to catch him before he hit the ground. The whole group looked on in shocked silence. No one had surprised Kang Taehyun in all the years he’d been active. 

“Let’s go. Please, let’s just go,” Beomgyu begged, and then they were gone. 

Soobin is forty-seven years old when he realizes how much time had passed since his last encounter with the legendary Demon Handler. Huening Kai still disappeared for weeks, sometimes months, leading Soobin to believe that his brother was vanishing to visit them, but he felt better not asking.

One day, Huening Kai comes home with a photo of a little boy, almost three years old, clutching a paper butterfly. His name was Ah-Chang, and it only took a few moments before Soobin realized what he was looking at. Beomgyu and Taehyun had adopted a baby, and it had taken Huening Kai so long to build up the courage to tell him that the child was now old enough to have basic conversations. 

Soobin had hummed and stared a bit too long at the photo. He was cute, there was no doubt. The name choice fit him well, but it still threw him. A Chinese name for a boy with Korean parents. Huening Kai explains that they’d found the child abandoned in a rural Chinese city on a hunt and had taken him in. 

Soobin tried not to let the irony of the situation hit him too hard. All of Beomgyu’s efforts to be who he was, and years later, he was finally dropping everything to raise a child. 

“Also, he’s not three anymore,” Huening Kai said suddenly, grinning at him awkwardly. Soobin stared.

“He’s almost seventeen. I just wanted you to see him as a baby, so you wouldn’t be so quick to do your judgy thing,” Huening Kai explained, pulling up another picture. The second one had a photo of Beomgyu and Taehyun, both in black and red robes, with a short, but clearly in his teens, boy between them.

He was in the standard white robes for the school that Soobin and the others had attended. The boy looked happy, wide smile, and crinkled eyes. His nose was flat and a bit wide like Beomgyu. Still, the eye smile was unmistakably a trait he’d attributed to Taehyun. If he wasn’t so sure of the impossibility, he would pin the child as their own. 

“It’s been a long time, Soobin. He’s testified in front of all the sect leaders. He’s fixed so many things. He saved so many people. Why are you still doing this?” Huening Kai asked, watching a video of Ah-Chang practicing his instrument for classes. Soobin didn’t know how to answer.

It had been ingrained in him for so long. What Beomgyu was doing was wrong. It was against the laws of the trade. People had died because of the way Beomgyu chose to go about banishing spirits. 

Did Beomgyu kill those people? No. Did he lose control of those spirits that did? Yes. It was, undoubtedly, his fault. Yet, the anger felt more like a crutch than anything. Even people that had lost family in the battle had returned to their daily lives without any thought to the Demon Handler. Why Soobin was so obsessed was a mystery.

A week later, there’s a knock on Soobin and Yeonjun’s door. Their son is the one to answer, his voice echoing back for them to come to see because he didn’t recognize the guest. Soobin jogged to the front door, ready to greet whoever it was, only to stand face to face with Ah-Chang. 

The boy smiled, holding a box out for Soobin to take. The teenager bowed politely, robes flapping from his enthusiasm.

“My mother sent me to deliver this. He says you would appreciate it,” Ah-Chang said, startling Soobin a little. Mother? 

“Your mother?” Soobin asked, confused. 

“I’m referring to Choi Beomgyu. He doesn’t find the title mother too fitting either, but it felt the most right as a child. He was very doting,” Ah-Chang spoke well of his father -- mother, Soobin corrected himself. The boy sounded nothing like he’d expect a child raised by Choi Beomgyu to sound. 

Now, Kang Taehyun, perhaps. 

“I must be off. There’s a vendor out selling churros next door, and I can’t miss out!” There was Beomgyu, Soobin thought as the boy bowed quickly and darted off, his belt coming loose in his speed. Soobin chuckled and shook his head, shutting the door. He took the gift to the kitchen and sat down at the table.

“What is it, dad?” His son asked. Soobin sighed and resigned himself to opening it. He pulled the lid off the package, eyes widening.

It was a box filled with different kinds of breads. Sweet bread, spicy bread, plain and jellied breads. Soobin chuckled, lifting the lid over to read the writing scrawled in messy Korean.

_It has been a while since I’ve spoken Korean, so I hope this makes sense. I remember what you said so many years ago, about not liking bread. When I told Ah-Chang this, he insisted on making every type of bread under the sun so you would find one you like. I’m sure he said that it was my idea, but he has a heart of gold and genuinely wanted you to enjoy one of life’s greatest pleasures._

_I hope you enjoy it. If not for me, then for him. I’m sure he wormed his way into your heart in the time he delivered the bread. (It’s in his DNA to be loved by all!)_

_\- Choi Beomgyu_

Soobin smiled bitterly, taking one of the jellied breads and taking a bite. It was delicious, perfectly soft, and sweet. Ah-Chang did an excellent job, indeed.

“Are you going to write back?” Soobin’s son asked, taking a piece of bread for himself. Soobin considered for a moment.

“I think I’m going to go catch up with his son. Maybe he’s enough like Beomgyu; he’ll let me know where they live now.” Soobin said. His son shrugged and threw his shoes on, waving as he went to walk out the door.

“I’ll let you know. He was cute, and I want churros, so I’ll be your messenger man,” Soobin’s son said, letting the door slam as he bolted after the boy. 

It would make sense that Soobin’s life would lead to his son finding the son of his most significant headache cute. 

**Author's Note:**

> Ask me questions: https://curiouscat.qa/gypsyether


End file.
